


Two Australians in Shetland  - Epilogue - The Relationship of Caprice and Jimmy

by chrislouise



Category: Shetland (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-13 07:06:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29149437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chrislouise/pseuds/chrislouise
Summary: I've tried to explain it as best I can, describing various incidents that happen to the characters.  So funny, as you write a story you don't always think of these things.  Sometimes you have thoughts in your head about the characters, even how they will appear if the story became a film, but forget that the thoughts don't always come across automatically to other readers.So here goes, hope it makes sense.  Please ask questions in the Comments.
Kudos: 1





	Two Australians in Shetland  - Epilogue - The Relationship of Caprice and Jimmy

**Author's Note:**

> Of course, you will need to read my stories to know what I'm talking about in this essay. If you think that I should edit anything in the stories to explain things more, please give suggestions.

All the time I was writing my story I was always trying to think of when and how Jimmy’s love for Caprice t should happen. I have always asked myself, even now as a woman in her 50’s, how do men’s emotions and feelings work. They are not as emotional as we are (in general) so how and when is it when they start to have feelings for us? It’s not always like in the movies, and, as I found when I was young, it wasn’t always like other girls told me.   
How did it work for me in real life? I met Mike at work, developed feelings, finally plucked the courage to ask him to coffee. He wasn’t interested at first – apart from one not-so-serious girlfriend, he was used to being single. Similar to Jimmy being used to being single, but not because he was mourning a deceased spouse, he was just used to it and content. Then he said he’d go out as friends. Then one night I kissed him and the rest is history.  
Haha, too much info? Ok, let’s get back to Jimmy and Caprice. When does Jimmy fall for Caprice? Well – he’s actually attracted to her when he first sees her, but doesn’t know it. And this actually happens in Part 1. In the first chapter, August! The second part of the first chapter, when Jermaine is writing to Marie, her friend back in Australia.  
Caprice brought Mick’s ashes to Scotland and has just scattered Mick’s ashes to the sea. While she and Jermaine are walking along the beach, Jermaine looks up and sees this man in a big black coat and reddy-blond hair staring at them. We all know who that is. But at this time, Caprice doesn’t notice him; she’s still grieving over Mick.  
Duncan and Mary’s first house is near Caprice’s. Jimmy has just dropped Cassie off, and is walking along the coast before going home. He sees a mother and daughter scattering ashes and looking at a photo of a man. He works out this man is their departed husband and father. The mother is wearing a skirt similar to one Fran had, and the daughter is not much older than Cassie was when Fran died. So of course this reminds him of how he and Cassie were when Fran first passed on. He is immediately intrigued.  
The next time he sees her is when they actually meet. He recognises her. She’s wearing the same skirt. She and Jermaine are running late for Jermaine’s Saturday morning drama school, he has the boat that can outrun the road traffic, so with a bit(?) of persuasion from Cassie he gives them a lift, and before the parents know it, the girls are wanting to organise an outing the next day.  
Oh yes you can guess the girls are trying to push them together. Jermaine takes a while to come to terms with a new guy in her mother’s life, but Cassie has wanted her Dad to meet someone else for a long time. Caprice is ideal – also widowed, so there’s no ex floating around the place, and a family person. I made Caprice widowed and not divorced, so she has been through the same sort of thing as Jimmy and for that understands him better. She would never dream of calling him Miss Havisham.  
He finds he gets on with her when they are having their picnic on the beach. He is impressed by the bond she forms with Magnus Bain. She sees Magnus as a sage with a different type of education, whereas others thought he was retarded. As she is widowed too, he finds it easy to talk to her about Fran, without getting tense or upset. He’s definitely fascinated by her.  
Now you will ask what Caprice looks like. Is she attractive, sexy, would she turn men on? Well she was created in my likeness, so to call her attractive and sexy would be bigheaded. But like me, she is a petite woman with a pale complexion, soft light-brown curly hair and blue eyes. Like me, she likes to dress up femininely in unusual styles. 

I get the impression Fran was similar. In the photo of the three of them in the TV series, she’s in her casual clothes because they’re getting off a ferry, and of course in the marathon photo she’s in her running clothes. They’re the only two photos we really see of her. But in the books she is an arty person who likes unusual clothes and I related to that. She wore unusual, pretty clothes when she went out. That and interest in the Arts are what she had in common with Caprice, which is what made Jimmy look in Caprice’s direction. 

Another man may have realised that he may be attracted to this woman. But Jimmy is not used to thinking like that. And of course the kids are often there too, so this makes it hard for any flirting. If they were both childless Caprice would be able to fling herself like Asha does, and this would have got Jimmy thinking.  
It’s true that after Fran died he threw himself into his work and looking after Cassie to keep his mind off and it became his life. Though I never thought he was as far gone as other Shetland characters think – other fans will have their own opinions on this – but he became used to thinking of nothing but work and Cassie.

And Caprice appreciates that he was very affected by Fran’s passing so doesn’t want to push him. She is widowed herself. Although Mick’s passing was more recent, she still appreciates that grief affects people in different ways and they have to move on in their own way and pace. Fran was obviously very special. She decides she needs to tell Jimmy of her feelings when the time is right – but knows she can’t leave it too late after spotting rivalry in Willow Reeves.

So how is Jimmy feeling at present? While there are not many crimes, things are calm. He has a new friend who is also widowed and appears to share a bond. It hasn’t dawned on him that there could be more. Then everything happens. Drug dealers, little Callum hospitalised after mistaking drugs for lollies, the deaths of Robbie and Michael. Robbie’s body is found hanging upside down on a scoop in the rubbish tip. Jimmy has dealt with deaths before, but Robbie was young and his end was very revolting and drives Jimmy to tears. The bigwigs in Glasgow won’t let him inspect Robbie’s body. Michael lodges a false complaint against him before getting killed himself. When Jimmy tries to find out who in Glasgow is trying to take the case from him, they hang up on him and he throws a plate on the floor and yells, “For the love of Christ!” And on top of that, Cassie plans to go to Brazil.

Everything has gotten on top of Jimmy. He’s not his calm, logical self. Caprice goes to visit him on that “For the love of Christ” night, but Rhona tells her to leave. If she tries to say something to him when he is hyped up over the case, he might snap like he snapped at Rhona. When he empties the letterbox, the junk mail and Caprice’s letter get caught up in his paperwork because he is still hyped. And he has no idea that Caprice tried to visit him.

He is still hyped when he goes to Glasgow. He begins to calm down, even come to terms with Cassie leaving Scotland. Then Arthur McCall appears and burns a photo of Fran that his henchmen stole when they broke into Fran’s parents’ house. Jimmy’s mind spins out of control again. He is normally a calm, sensible policeman, but obviously this is his Achilles Heel.

If the Arthur incident had not happened – Jimmy would have gone back to his hotel room and started going through his paperwork in the sensible manner that he normally does. And checked all his texts. And find what he should find, which would make him stop and think “Wow, do I like Caprice?”. He would not have been at the bar, tipsy and vulnerable and approached by Asha.

So – the next time he sees Caprice is at a distance, when she is approached by Calvin Sawar. He is thinking “I need to catch up with her.” He is currently besotted in Asha but something in him isn’t happy about Caprice talking to Calvin. And it’s not just because Calvin is a suspect.

Then the next time, Caprice sees him with Asha, mentions her letter and walks off in a huff. Things are now spinning in his head again, for a different reason. He tries to think of why he would misplace this letter Caprice talks about, this time goes through his paperwork carefully, trying to keep calm, and finally finds it. It’s at this time that he is starting to realise what people are saying to him about being too bogged down in his work that he doesn’t notice other things. He now knows he should have noticed Caprice. He started getting bogged down in his work to get over Fran, then didn’t realise that another suitable match was right in front of him. And she didn’t nag or criticise like Willow, and later Alice. She respected him and his work - and Fran’s memory - enough so as not to push or interfere. But what is he to do now that he has met Asha?

When Caprice has to give a statement about Calvin, she wants to talk to Tosh, not Jimmy. Jimmy sees it as a sign that she never wants to see him again. Of course that isn’t the case. Caprice is worried that if she sees Jimmy she will get too upset and not give an accurate statement. When things don’t work out with Asha, he thinks of ringing Caprice but worries she will slam the phone down. Another man would have immediately contacted Caprice to see if there is still hope. But Jimmy is out of touch with this sort of thing so thinks the worst. (Probably why he didn’t push it with Asha in the TV Series). Coping with Cassie’s departure to Brazil and the loss of two women who are alive, he keeps to himself – until Thomas and the Brooks enter the story and the new cases begin.

In the first chapter of Part 4, when Caprice is dancing at the music festival, you will recall she sees in the distance a familiar figure in a big black coat and reddy-blond hair. Jimmy is trying to get on with his life again, and isn’t even interested in the music festival. But he does know Caprice likes that sort of thing and might be there. So he passes it outside the fence and looks for her. He isn’t sure if he is feeling love or guilt, or both. He feels terrible about Calvin kidnapping her and knowing he was the reason why. And also how Calvin’s colleague Andy insulted her.

So he is certain he will never see Caprice again when he and Alice get together – until he receives her phone message stating that Duncan told her Asha had gone. Then Caprice sees him and Alice together and the same situation arises. This time Caprice is more upset because Alice is married! He is sure she definitely won’t want to see him again. Now things are really spinning in Jimmy’s head. He would have had another chance with this woman and he blew it for a married woman.  
And yes, things are spinning around over the cases. He is trying to find young Zezi and hopes she will still be alive whilst pacifying her bewildered mother Olivia, and also trying to prove the innocence of the temperamental Thomas. (My story is an amalgamation of Series 4 and 5 – if in the real Shetland he really was doing both those cases at the same time, how would he keep sane?)

One scene I hadn’t written in my story because it was getting long. With Cassie at Uni, and Duncan in his own home when he and Mary are getting on, Jimmy is alone in the house. He goes outside and looks at the boat. It hasn’t been used for a long time, just like in the real Series. He recalls the fun times on the boat, times he really felt he was having a bit of fun since Fran died. And who were in the boat with him? Caprice and Jermaine. When he looks at the boat he finds he thinks of Caprice, not Alice.

Now a seedy company involved in the human traffickers is discovered under Alice’s name. She gets questioned. This immediately puts a dampener between them. Caprice and Asha would have realised Jimmy has to do his job, but a feisty hussy like Alice becomes aggressively defensive. Another scene I would have put in my story but it got long. In the Real Series, when he finds out about the company in Alice’s name, Jimmy goes outside and crouches down trying to keep himself together. In my story he sees Caprice on her way to the bus stop to go to work. She sees him, sees he is distressed and starts to go to him but her friend Kirsty drags her to the bus stop, stating they need to get to work and she should forget about that loser. He’s realising more and more who he should be with, after being called a loser by her friend.

Now we get to Chapters 10 and 11 of Part 4. Jermaine and her friends are approached by Chris Brooks, not knowing he is one of the human traffickers. Jermaine thinks he just wants to talk to her Mum about Alice and Jimmy. Fortunately PC Grant fetches them, under instructions from Sandy. 

Sandy is following Chris at this moment. Chris has been released from the station but is still a suspect. When Chris approaches the girls, Sandy can guess what might happen, so as soon as he spots PC Grant, who is going to Caprice’s house anyway with Cassie, he summons him. He then rings Jimmy to inform what happened, as Jimmy wants to be updated about anything of interest.

The cops rightfully suspect Chris’s intentions of wanting to abduct the girls and Caprice too. And it’s not just to sell them to the other human traffickers to pay off debts. It’s a personal vendetta, another Calvin situation. Jimmy sighs, “Oh Caprice, you don’t deserve this.” His combined feelings of love and guilt are stronger. He wants to go and see her amongst all his policing, and finds a reason when PC Grant rings to inform him that Graeme Benson was there.

Though there is really no need for him to check on Caprice and the girls. They are safe, PC Grant is with them. Caprice comments on that – she knows there’s another reason why Jimmy is here.

So we get to the second conversation in Chapter 11, where they are both letting everything out. Jimmy now knows for sure what he should have noticed long ago, but hasn’t quite shaken off his feelings for Alice. When Caprice asks him if he still loves Alice, he’s not sure what to answer, but is saved by his phone ringing. And they can’t flirt, partly because they are both tense about the situation, but also because they are aware that the girls are watching from the doorway. 

Then Alice leaves for good, and Jimmy is trying to pluck up the courage to contact Caprice. He is trying to work out if she still wants him (of course she does). Then he receives her phone message and knows there is actually a chance for happiness. Another thing has occurred to him – back in Part 2 when he and Caprice were starting to get to know each other, he was asked twice – first time by Magnus – if Caprice was the new Mrs Perez. He didn’t know her very well then, so didn’t know what to answer – but couldn’t say a straight out no.

And their last conversation. There is affection in it, but it starts off tense because Caprice is trying to establish for sure where she stands. But Jimmy finally asks her to sit by him, and holds her as he continues talking. And just before Olivia and Zezi arrive, he takes her hand and asks the same pick-up line that he asked Asha – about biting and painting the nails.

Then Olivia asks that question - “is she the new Mrs Perez?” Jimmy now knows what to say. How do you describe a feeling that comes out in you suddenly? Like something suddenly clicks ? That’s what happens when Jimmy knows that he wants to marry Caprice.

So then we finish with the happy ending.


End file.
